70 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
( A ). South Perak Malays 
Leaving out of consideration one individual whose stature was only 1,232 
mm. (though he appeared to be normally proportioned in every way), the 
mean height of thirty-six adult males, measured in Batang Patang, was found 
to be 1,594 mm.; the tallest man was 1,763 mm., and the shortest 1,488 mm., 
but the former, in his exceptionally long and narrow face and almost leptorhine 
nose, showed strong evidence of either European or Arab ancestry, though we 
were unable to discover anything in his family history that would warrant the 
supposition. 
The colour of the skin of the Malays in this district, inspected in parts 
of the body not exposed to the air, was surprisingly uniform, ranging from 
dark olive through red to olive, the great majority of cases being recorded as 
between the two former tints. In one instance, that of a man from Sungkei, 
the colour was between chocolate and dark olive, similar to the general colour 
of the Semangs ; but no Malay whom we examined in Perak approached the 
fairer Sakais from the mountains in complexion. 
We have recorded the hair as * straight’ in all but two cases ; but it was 
usually cut so short that a slight amount of waviness would have escaped notice. 
One case is registered as 4 slightly wavy ! and another as 4 curly, 1 and it is a 
significant fact that the latter man has the darkest complexion of any individual 
in the series, the two characters together affording a very strong presumption 
of 4 aboriginal * descent. On the face, hair is almost entirely absent until about 
thirty-five years of age, and is scanty at all ages ; but it must be remembered 
that artificial depilation is largely practised : body hair is also extremely scanty. 
In colour, the hair is invariably of a lustrous black, without the sooty or red¬ 
dish tinge often noted in the Semangs and Sakais, and occasionally in the 
Malayo-Siamese of the Eastern States. As we have pointed out before, it is 
doubtful how much of this greater intensity of colour is due to care and the 
use of hair oil. 
The eyes were usually black, but in ten cases had a reddish-brown colour. 
The epicanthus was absent in eleven cases, vestigial in seventeen ; in six it 
covered about half the caruncle, and in three was rather more extensive ; but 
in no case was the caruncle entirely obscured. The noses, while of much the 
same character as those of the Samsams and Malayo-Siamese, were less coarse 
in type, and a fairly definite bridge was generally present ; the alae were less 
widely spread, and the nostril less patent; in no case did the breadth exceed 
the length. The hands and feet seemed to us to be more finely moulded than 
those of the other civilized races of the Peninsula, and the feet, possibly owing 
